Pentagon Awards Contract To Oshkosh Defense To Replace Humvees
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Pentagon Awards Contract To Oshkosh Defense To Replace Humvees
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Pentagon Awards Contract To Oshkosh Defense To Replace Humvees

Trending News: The Humvee Is Dead. Long Live The JLTV

Why Is This Important?

Because it will help keep our soldiers safe.


Long Story Short

Oshkosh Defense has landed a $6.75 billion contract to make a new-generation light tactical vehicle for the US army and marine corps. The era of the once ubiquitous humvee is over.


Long Story

This is no ordinary beast.

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) combines the protective armor of a tank with the mobility of a Jeep and it’s the truck that’s about to define the American military for at least the next two decades.

The JLTV is built by the Wisconsin based Oshkosh corporation. The company, which boasts next-generation defense technologies, has just nabbed a $6.75 billion contract to build 55,000 JLTV’s for the US Army and Marine Corps.

To land the deal, Oshkosh beat out Lockheed Martin and makers of the Humvee, AM General.

The aging Humvee, which is being phased out, certainly went above and beyond the call of duty, serving as the army vehicle of record from the 1989 invasion of Panama to the Gulf War, and from the Bosnian War to more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Oshkosh JLTV has a larger payload than the Humvee and is considered more reliable.

Roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices (IED) make the thin-skinned Humvee and its troops more vulnerable. Defense contractors were pushed to take 'survivability' up a notch, producing Mine Resistant Ambush Protection Vehicles (MRAP).

The JLTV, according to Oshkosh Defense president, John M. Urias, provides “the ballistic protection of a light tank, the underbody protection of an MRAP-class vehicle and the off-road mobility of a Baja racer.”

Getting soldiers where they have to go as quickly and safely as possible is what any country would hope for. It’s obviously what the US was aiming for and in order to get this deal done, the Pentagon made budget cuts and cancelled evolving helicopter, artillery and communications programs.

Oshkosh will start putting the JLTV together in the first quarter of fiscal 2016, with the first American soldiers strapping into the new vehicles by 2018.

Expect the contract to get seriously jacked, for a possible total value of $30 billion, nailing down Oshkosh as a defense powerhouse until 2040.




Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Should we putting more focus on drone technologies that will keep our soldiers out of harm's way?

Disrupt Your Feed
: They made a commercial version of the Humvee; it’s probably just a matter of time before you’re negotiating traffic in a commercial version of the JLTV.

Drop This Fact
: The two companies competing against Osh Kosh, including the makers of the Humvee, aren’t happy they lost out and could still protest the Pentagon’s decision.